


Three times, 't is said, a sinking man / Comes up to face the skies

by bathtimefunduck



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: 2x19, F/F, Lucy POV, Multi, angst appropriate for the ep, director sanvers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-21
Packaged: 2018-10-31 22:22:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10908630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bathtimefunduck/pseuds/bathtimefunduck
Summary: Anonymous said:Episode 2x19 but with director sanvers?Director Sanvers in 2x19. Two parts.Look on the bright side: you already know how the episode ends.





	1. Three times, ‘t is said, a sinking man

**Author's Note:**

> Much of the dialogue is taken straight from the ep, though I give some of it to different people. That's part of what's taking so long XD
> 
> Fair warning, this first part ends on angst. Feel free to wait til I get the second part posted so you can go straight to the happy ending.

Lucy made it a point to work overnight shifts at the desert base when Kara was bringing her boyfriend to dinner. Maggie was still too new to the dynamic to say anything to Kara, and Alex was still feeling guilty for encouraging it in the first place. Really, it was in everyone’s best interest if Lucy skipped those dinners, because a dead alien was just  _ so _ much paperwork and hiding the body kind of went against the codes of law enforcement. 

She wasn’t exactly surprised to get a text from Maggie that things didn’t go well. The DEO had the benefit of Supergirl’s sister kicking her ass in the green room to teach her at least a few protocols, the NCPD did not. And honestly, after 17 hours of negotiating just to have Supergirl blow out a wall? Lucy would be a little frustrated too.

It didn’t even surprise her that Alex wasn’t home when she dragged herself in at six in the morning, just as Maggie was making coffee. It wasn’t unusual for Alex to spend the night with Kara after someone had a disagreement. 

What was unusual was Maggie calling to wake her up a scant few hours later, her voice tinged with panic. “Someone has Alex.”

Lucy’s eyes shoot open, “What are you talking about, Sawyer?”

“Someone has Alex. I went to check with Kara when Winn said she didn’t come into work today--Lucy, she never met up with Kara last night. I should have- I should have texted her or gone with her, if I hadn’t picked a fight with Kara-”

“Maggie, no. None of this is your fault, okay? I’m getting dressed, okay, just, just calm down and walk me through what you know.”

“She, she told me not to wait up when she left. That Kara’s as stubborn as I am,” Maggie took a deep, shuddering breath. “I didn’t think anything of it when I fell asleep without hearing from her. I woke up, had coffee with you, sent her a good morning text. Then Winn called and I… I realized something was wrong, so I went to talk to Kara.”

The phone was sandwiched between her head and her shoulder. Lucy reached up to switch it to the other shoulder while she hopped into her tac pants. “Okay, so what happened next, Mags?”

“Kara was still mad at me. But, you know, Alex. Then a call came through from Alex’s phone. It wasn’t Alex.”

“Who was it, Maggie?”

“We don’t, we don’t know. They sent a picture of Alex. They know Kara’s Supergirl and they want her to free some guy from prison or… or…”

“Maggie. Are you on your way to the DEO?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be there soon. Hang tight, Detective Dimples, we’ll figure out who’s got her and how to find her. It’s what we do.”

“Be careful, Lucy.”

“See you soon, Maggie.”

It doesn’t take long for Lucy to slip into yesterday’s tac gear and her belt. Normally, this time of day, Alex’s apartment was half an hour from the city office. 

Lucy made it in fifteen.

Still wiping sleep from her makeup-free eyes, she waltzes into the command center and is completely unsurprised to see everyone huddled. It’s Alex. Hell, if Lucy hadn’t left Vas in charge of the desert base, she was sure the other agent would be front and center trying to track this guy down with Winn.

Maggie, J’onn, and Mon El leaned on the table while Kara paced. Lucy slid in between the agents until she could take her place next to the boy wonder, where Maggie could see her, but far enough away to maintain some semblance of professionalism. Even if they were both terrified.

Lucy was glad to see Maggie had her cop face on, at least, even if she still looked upset. Lucy already had to worry about Kara going off the rails. 

“So this person who says they kidnapped Alex, what  _ exactly _ did they say on the call?” J’onn asked.

“He said he would kill Alex if I didn’t break Peter Thompson out of Albatross Bay, he said he  _ knows _ Kara Danvers is Supergirl,” Kara took a deep breath. “He’s targeting Alex because she’s my sister.”

“This might be stating the obvious here, but why don’t we just spring Peter Thompson and bring Alex home?”

“The DEO does not negotiate with terrorists,” J’onn said.

“But this is  _ Alex _ ,” said Mon El.

And Lucy had to give him some credit. He was an ass, spoiled and completely not good enough for Kara, but sometimes his heart was in the right place. It probably helped that even he realized how important Alex was to Kara, that she came before even him. 

Even rocks can learn to float, apparently.

“If we do it once,” J’onn said, “We’ll open the flood gates. Every bad guy will know that Supergirl can be controlled.”

“And even if we do what he wants, there’s no guarantee he’ll release her.”

Lucy watches Maggie’s face as she speaks. Maggie’s cop face was calm. Her voice, though, held a slight tremble. So slight, she and maybe Winn were probably the only humans to pick up on it. Lucy noticed that Kara was still keeping her distance from Maggie, even as she passed by Lucy in her pacing and offered a tight smile.

Kara did, at least, look at Maggie when she continued with “She’s his insurance.”

J’onn stood up. “Alright people, let’s get to work!”

Maggie drops her head as the other agents turn away from them and head to do whatever digging and tracing of Alex’s steps they can. Lucy glanced around, found Winn, and took quick steps to reach his side. “Any luck, Schott? What about Alex’s tracker?”

Winn shook his head, “No, it’s been offline since ten o’clock last night, whoever took her… must have found some way to power it down.”

“Shit.” 

“Where are we in triangulating the phone call?” J’onn asked.

“Yeah, no where.” Winn’s hand makes frantic motions this way and that.”The caller used four different arrays to scramble the signal. You guys, listen, we, we gotta move.”

Lucy looks between Alex’s surrogate baby brother and Maggie, who is drooping over the table, blaming herself. Kara, Kara stood tall with a stubborn set to her chin and Mon El at her back. She’d be fine, for now. It was Maggie she worried about.

Lucy made her way back to the table, this time close enough to nudge Maggie with her hip. Her hands brace against the tabletop, her pinky just close enough to brush Maggie’s. “Okay, let’s start with what we do know. If that guy knows you’re Supergirl, let’s use that to our advantage.”

“Well that’s gotta be a short list. Who knows your secret?”

Lucy snorts. Maggie snorts. Lucy’s pretty sure that every agent within hearing distance snorts. J’onn just has a face of stone and years of being a dad to prevent himself from doing the same.

“Uhhh Jeremiah, Eliza, Clark, the DEO, Lillian Luthor…”

_ Cat Grant. Lena Luthor (not that Lucy was stupid enough to point that out around Alex). Every food delivery person within a 15 mile radius of Kara’s apartment, the staff of at least seven food trucks, anyone who’d ever seen Kara eat _ , the list really went on and on. Lucy regularly had lunch with Pam, Kara’s “secret” was the worst-kept since Alex’s sexuality, and really, was it anyone’s fault that obliviousness could apparently be passed on by years of close contact with a brick wall? She wondered sometimes, which of the Danvers sisters rubbed off on whom. 

“Does Peter Thompson have ties with CADMUS?” Maggie asks. 

“No, I already checked. There’s nothing.” Winn said.

“Then you’re asking the wrong question. We don’t  _ know _ where Alex was taken, we don’t  _ have _ a crime scene, we don’t have  _ any  _ physical evidence. They’ve  _ clearly _ been planning this for a while. Whoever took Alex is a ghost who doesn’t wanna be found.”

“Then what’s the right question?!” 

Lucy shares a look with Maggie before looking at a clearly frustrated Supergirl in Kara Danvers’ clothing. “Who is Peter Thompson?”

“And what does he mean to our ghost?” Maggie finished.

They break apart to do their own thing. Kara and her boyfriend go off to the bar to check if anyone heard anything. Winn turns back to his computer, typing away at some algorithm he was probably designing from scratch to enhance any facial recognition search he was running to see if it could be improved. 

Maggie allows Lucy to drag them both to Alex’s office. She stayed stiff and unyielding even as Lucy held her tighter. “It’s not your fault, Mags.”

“I fought with Kara. I’m the reason she left.”

Lucy pulled back so she could look into Maggie’s eyes, dark and heavy with guilt. Lucy reaches up hesitantly to tuck the hair behind Maggie’s ear and cup her face. That was always Alex’s move, and Lucy, secure as she had begun to feel between them, wasn’t sure how it would be received. 

Maggie leaned into it, allaying her fears. Her eyes closed, her head resting heavy in Lucy’s hand. The next breath was shuddering, even as Maggie refused to cry.

“It’s not your fault, Maggie. You said it yourself, whoever this is has been planning this. If he couldn’t grab her then he would have done it later, when she went to grab coffee or on her way to sister night… there’s nothing you did that caused this.”

Maggie’s jaw twitches as she grinds her teeth. “I can’t lose her, Lucy.”

“You won’t.  _ We _ won’t.”

“Fuck, I’m, I’m sorry Luce, you’re right, she’s not just-”

“Hey, hey, look at me, okay?” Lucy whispers. “She is ours, and we are going to find her. Carefully, because I can’t lose either one of you, okay?”

Maggie nods and shifts to press her forehead against Lucy’s. They grip hands tightly, just breathing each other in. 

Lucy doesn’t go to Albatross Bay. She wants to, god, she wants to. But J’onn is right. Somehow, someone had watched them so closely they were able to predict that Maggie and Kara would fight, that Alex would go after her sister alone. Someone had watched Alex, and watched the rest of them, for entirely too long and entirely too well without even the mind reading Martian detecting them. 

She’d be embarrassed if she weren’t so terrified for Alex. 

So she stays behind while J’onn, Maggie, and Kara head to Albatross Bay, even as the tension between Kara and Maggie continued to build. She worried about them. Lucy may have come into this relationship late, may have a minefield to navigate when it came to Alex and Maggie’s issues on top of her own, but at least Kara knew her, loved her. Maggie broke Alex’s heart, then, as far as Kara was concerned, stole Alex from her. The truce between Kara and Maggie was tenuous at best, and the space between Maggie and Supergirl continued to grow. 

Lucy shook her head. She needed to get back to the business at hand and figure out how they were watched. Maybe then, she could figure out where Alex was and how to get her back before anything else happened.

The city’s teams were a blend of her own and the unfamiliar. When the call went out, even guys on vacation came in to help. Alex Danvers was both a legend and the demon they scared baby agents with. She was family, and the DEO protected their own. There had been enough traitors in recent history, enough disruptions from CADMUS spies and her father’s own last year. What was left were the men, women, and non-gender specific agents that would bust ass until their own was brought home. 

Teams were sent out with scanners to their apartments. Alex’s, Maggie’s, Kara’s, even her own, though she was never there, looking for cameras and bugs, checking angles on windows for potential long-distance spying. She had Winn combing through the data of every satellite that had passed over National City in the last six months to see if any of them had been focused on them specifically. 

One by one reports came in from the field. Lucy shattered a mug against the wall when she heard just how many things were found, how badly their privacy had been invaded. 

Then she shot off an email to Pam about changing the policy of scanning agents’ homes for threats. Clearly waiting for an active threat was no longer acceptable. 

Winn’s news was lackluster at best. Lord’s satellites had been focusing on L Corp, which was a worry for another day. The ones her father likely had access to had been haunting the two DEO bases, which was  _ also _ a problem for another day, and a big one at that. As if Daxamites and god knows what else weren’t big enough threats, she had to deal with her own goddamn father. 

As for Lord, well, Lucy made a mental note to ask Alex if Maggie knew about her date with him. 

“Winn, any luck tracing the bugs?”

“On the bright side, it’s definitely our guy. Transmission is bouncing around just like the phone call. Unfortunately, that makes it just as untraceable.”

“How the fuck did he plant them?”

Winn shrugs. “Maintenance man? Delivery girl? Good old fashioned breaking and entering?”

“Go back through the building logs. Take it back a year if you have to. I want this bastard found.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Lucy sighs and rubs her eyes, hoping the interrogation went better. 

Something dings, and Winn lets out a shout, startling her and every agent within earshot. 

“YES!” he dials Kara, “Hey, we got something!”

Lucy smacks his head for not clearing the call with her first. Or maybe for failing to explain why he was suddenly so excited. 

“What?” Kara says. 

Judging by the tone of voice, the interrogation  _ isn’t _ going well. That is not what Lucy was hoping for, but maybe Winn had found something that could give them some leverage over Thompson. 

“So I scanned the visitor logs for Peter Thompson for the past three years. They’re pretty sparse except for one name that kept popping up.”

“Who?”

Yes, Winn, Lucy would love to know the answer to that as well. He’s almost Manic though, as he bounces from screen to screen. So she steps back and lets him work through it, making a note about sending him back to protocol training  _ again _ . Genius friend of Supergirl he may be, but she is tired of fending off HR for all of his write ups and violations.

“Doesn’t matter, it’s a fake name.”

Lucy lets out a very frustrated breath through her nose. 

“BUT, I pulled security footage and baby I  _ ran  _ that facial recognition software. Thompson  _ has a son _ .”

“But we checked,” Kara protests, “He doesn’t have any relations.”

“Well apparently there’s a lot of family drama there Thompson’s not even on the kid’s birth certificate,” Winn says. “And I only figured this out after I cross-checked the names with the court transcripts, the  _ kid spoke at Thompson’s sentencing. _ ”

And he’s off to another computer. Lucy is beginning to wonder if anyone is monitoring anything except the Alex situation. Which, on a personal level, she is completely fine with. But on a professional level, she  _ is not _ looking forward to writing up new protocols. 

“And his name… is… Rick Malvern. He has a house an hour outside the city.”

“Rick Malvern. Why does that sound so familiar?”

“Because,” Winn answer, turning to look at Lucy, “he’s from Midvale.”

_ Fuck _ . He knew them, knew Kara and Alex. Had known them as children. Knowing Kara, she probably slipped as a child fresh from space, and knowing Alex, her protective streak had been visible for miles. Even without the spying, the groundwork for Alex’s abduction must have been laid  _ decades _ ago. 

Lucy sinks forward against the main display table and hangs her head for a minute, mind racing over all the possibilities. 

She jerks her head up as Winn starts rattling off an address, “Schott, no-”

And it’s too late. Supergirl is off after the  _ one _ lead they had, J’onn hot on her trail and Maggie reporting both as she is heard loudly, angrily, slamming the door of the vehicle they had arrived at the prison in. She had been left behind. Again.

As soon as Alex was back in their hands, safe and sound, Lucy was going to drag Kara into the training room and beat some sense into her.

All she can do is listen into Supergirl’s earpiece. Either she’s muted the DEO’s signal or she’s just blatantly ignoring all of Lucy’s please to stop and wait for a team. Maggie, silent on her phone, even though Lucy had her on speaker to keep her apprised. 

Well, almost silent. 

Lucy can hear the engine gunning at every straightaway, the sirens of the DEO’s SUV blaring as Maggie, who has no authorization to drive it or use them, breaks all sorts of rules to get back to the DEO faster. She won’t beat Supergirl to Malvern and everyone knows it. So she’s heading back to Lucy. 

The Danvers sisters were going to cause a re-evaluation of the entire divisions protocols three goddamn years ahead of schedule and likely force the DEO to scrap the whole thing and start over. 

There’s a slam as Supergirl kicks a door in without warning. No warrant or police to prove reasonable doubt. Sweet Jesus no wonder Maggie was so pissed at her. 

“Alex?” Kara calls out.

Lucy’s eyes are glued to the speakers. 

“Alex?!”

There’s no point in asking what Supergirl is seeing. 

“She can’t hear you, Kara,” says a male voice.

Malvern, Lucy was sure of it. Her hands grip into fists, nails biting into the flesh of her palm.

“Rick?”

“Jesus, I haven’t seen you since graduation. You look great!”

Angry Kryptonian footsteps. 

“Where is my sister?”

And where the hell was J’onn? How fast had Kara gone to leave him so far behind?

“You breakmy father out of prison yet?” he asks, his voice strained.

If Vasquez were here, she’d be betting Kara had him up and off the ground by the throat. 

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Can’t? Or won’t?”

_ Crash _ .

“Tell me where she is.”

Lucy closes her eyes and prays that J’onn will get there soon. She takes a deep breath and turns to glare at Winn. He winces and shrinks into his seat. 

“That’s not how this works,” Malvern laughs. “Now why don’t you try to play nice, Kara? You were always the nice one.”

“Just let me talk to her,” Kara begs.

“If that gets you to play ball, well, then I’m happy to help.”

Shuffling. And footsteps. A keyboard is tapped. 

“Alex?”

Lucy grips the back of Winn’s chair tightly. She holds her breath. 

“Kara? Kara is that you?”

Lucy sags, and a heavy breath is let out over the phone she almost forgot she was holding. Thank god, Rao, and anyone else listening. Tinny and distant, clearly through speakers, it was Alex responding to Kara’s voice. 

“It was Rick, Rick Malvern from Midvale! He kidnapped me.”

“I-I know. I’m with him right now. Are you okay? Where are you?” 

And that’s Kara’s voice over Supergirl’s comm, breaking, stuttering. Sounding a bit like Lucy imagines her own heartbeat does in this moment.

“My, my tracker. Can you use my tracker?” Alex asks. 

“It’s not working, we don’t kno-”

“Okay,” Rick interrupts. 

“That’s enough of a reunion,” he says over Kara’s protests. “It’s simple. She’s told you she’s okay. And now we trade my father for Alex.”

And she’s gone. The voice Lucy is so desperate to hold onto, is gone. One of two people in this world that Lucy would burn the world to the ground for was out of reach again, and a glance at the open call on her screen showed Maggie’s tracker was still miles away. 

“Your father is a murderer.”

“A manslaughterer.”

“Tell. Me. Where. She. Is.”

“Tic toc. Tic toc.”

There is a sound of heat vision warming up. Oxygen beginning to burn in the air around Kara’s eyes, Alex once explained. Lucy can’t help but let out a cry of protest. If Kara kills him, Alex is as good as dead. 

Killing him comes later, when Alex is safe and on mandatory mental health leave, sandwiched between Lucy and Maggie catching up on the L Word and bitching that she’s fine. 

“Oh wow,” he says, “That’s even cooler up close. You hurt me, you’ll never find her. And she’ll die. Slowly.”

They’re gathered at the screen watching as Malvern is led into interrogation. She, Maggie, J’onn, Kara, and Winn. While they’re dealing with this, Mon El is acting as James’ backup, and Lucy hopes to hell her ex-boyfriend survives the experience.

“He looks  _ normal, _ ” Winn says, voicing all of their thoughts. 

“He was so  _ nice _ in high school, he used to carry Alex’s bookbag.Why is he doing this to her?”

“I tried reading his mind. He must be blocking me somehow,” adds J’onn. 

Maggie shifts from foot to foot, eyes shining and jaw set as she stares at the screen. Lucy knows how she feels, knows she’d be doing the same if years of military training hadn’t beaten it out of her. This is all Maggie and none of Detective Sawyer, and Lucy is well aware no one would be seeing this side of her if it weren’t  _ Alex _ missing. 

“I’ll go talk to him,” Lucy says.

She doesn’t expect Maggie to ask the same, though she probably should have. They both look to J’onn. There’s not a damn one of them who isn’t too emotionally invested in this to go talk to Malvern right now, but they are the best the DEO and the NCPD has to offer after Alex. And the last time Alex interrogated someone because someone she loved was in danger, J’onn had to drag her away before he became a bloody corpse on the cell floor. 

J’onn looks between them. Lucy stands at parade, but Maggie’s still fidgeting. There’s a danger in letting either of them in there with him, a danger to Alex  _ and  _ to their prisoner. 

“Maggie. It’s not time yet for a cross examination, Lane, we’ll send you in after we have the whole story.”

Lucy shares a look with Maggie. She grits her teeth and nods, turning back to the screen as Maggie exits the room. 

Yet again, she’s on the sidelines. 

It seems J’onn has forgotten that Lucy was able to pick out Alex’s lie when even a lie detector test failed. 

“No, I haven’t. But I want your perspective on this from the outside, where he can’t see you get angry.”

“I can control myself, J’onn.”

“I know. I want you watching them both.”

Lucy turns her head to frown at him before the scrape of a chair draws her back to the screen. She doesn’t notice until the door to the room shuts that Kara is even gone until she sees her in front of the door with her arm crossed. 

“Detective Sawyer. And they say there’s never a cop around when you need one.”

Maggie looks unimpressed. “So you know me.”

“I took a whole year planning this. Watching Alex. Preparing. I know...everything.”

“How did you know I was Supergirl?” Kara interrupts. 

Lucy sighs. Winn isn’t the only one in need of a refresher course. 

“That day at the beach,” Malvern grins. “Back then I had no idea that Alex was, playing for the other team, so to speak.”

He leans forward and takes a quick glance at the camera. “You know, for a while there, I thought she was cheating on you with the Major. It took me a while to put the pieces together and my, I would not have predicted this in high school.”

Reasons to kill him just kept mounting. Lucy clenched her fists again and watched as Maggie did her best not to react. She was willing to admit that Maggie held out a lot better than she would have.

“I was just happy she showed up on the date,” he continues. “Then there was a crash. And Alex’s kid sister walked away without a scratch. People at school said it was adrenaline, but, uh…”

“But you didn’t believe that,” Maggie adds quietly.

“I saw Kara Danvers do something… amazing,” he agreed. “I knew Kara was living in National City and then Supergirl showed up  _ in National City _ …”

And now Lucy is beginning to worry about who outside of National City knew the city’s worst-kept secret. She shoots a text to Pam to get her team to profile Alex and Kara’s old classmates and see who else needs to be served with an NDA. 

“I put two and two together, I knew it was you.”

“What happened to you?” Kara asks. “I remember when Alex had the chicken pox, I was eating lunch alone. You-you came and sat with me. What happened to you?”

“I was fourteen and I didn’t have the perfect house or the perfect family like you and your sister had-”

“ _ You think we had it easy?  _ You have  _ no idea _ what Alex sacrificed for me or what I was going through?”

“Why? Because you had to hide your  _ superpowers _ ? I was hiding  _ bruises! _ Do you have any idea what it’s like to hear your mother tell you you’re garbage, every single night?”

Lucy sees the twitch in Maggie’s jaw, the set of her eyes. She also sees Malvern look to her, specifically, after saying that. She herself had heard the story only recently, and she can’t help but wonder if he heard her the first time she told Alex, or the time Maggie told her later, or both. If he heard the pain in Maggie’s voice, if he heard her break, and was poking the bear. 

“A belt, whenever you have the wrong opinion? And then I found a lifeline, a  _ dad _ that my mom kept from me. And he saved me from her, and he moved me away from Midvale, and even though we were always struggling, we  _ always _ had food on the table, and he got me enough money to go to college.  _ And then three years ago _ , the state took him away from me!”

“Your father killed two people, he confessed.” Maggie said.

“They had it comin’ and now I’m going to rescue him. Like he rescued me,” Malvern said. “I can’t believe we’re still talking about me, you have twenty-four hours and eleven minutes. C’mon, Kara, show us some of that rah-rah Midvale Junior High spirit.  _ FREE MY DAD!  _  Or your sister dies.”

The chains of his restrains snap nearly as quickly as Kara does. He’s pressed up against the wall sooner than Lucy can blink, Maggie still standing half a room away. J’onn is already moving out of observation and Winn is frozen, staring. It isn’t Kara who snaps like this, who jumps to violence the moment words don’t work. Earlier it was Kara’s voice in Supergirl’s cape, but now it’s Alex’s heart in the grip holding Malvern to the wall. 

“Oh if you use half this much gusto in springing my dad, you’ll have your sister back for game night.”

“Kara,” Maggie shouts, “We’re done here.”

And Kara, much to Lucy’s surprise, actually drops him. 

Alex has been gone for nearly 24 hours at this point. If anything happened to the scum on the floor, all three of them would lose her forever. Something in Maggie’s voice must have gotten that across. 

“Hey, you know what will be fun? Finding out which one of you loves her more. Honestly, I wouldn’t even know where to place my bet. Especially with that pretty Major in the next room.”

Lucy watches Maggie wait to follow Kara. She watches as the door shuts, wanting to know for sure they’re out before she chases after them. 

Kara is stomping away before she makes it to the hall, where Maggie’s arms are crossed and her eyes closed. Her face is tilted towards the ceiling, though she relaxes when Lucy leans up against her back.

It was a good plan, but Lucy thinks they played it too soon. J’onn’s acting was brilliant, so was Maggie’s, but Malvern had studied them for a  _ year _ when they didn’t even know he was going to be a problem. 

That doesn’t stop her from being crushed when he sees through the ruse. She falls back against the wall. She’s still watching though, as Winn shouts from the hall. As Kara bursts into the room. 

“Maggie!”

Maggie stands and spins, putting herself between Kara and Malvern. “What? How?”

“I guess you underestimated my sister,” Kara says to Malvern. She says to Maggie, “Let’s go.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Malvern warns. 

And Lucy believes him.

Kara does not. “You’re delusional and the second we are back here with Alex, you’re going to prison with your dad.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The warning is clear, but Maggie pauses to watch Malvern’s face before chasing Kara into the hall, where Lucy soon joins them, because this is  _ not  _ a conversation she is being left out of again. Alex is hers too. 

“Malvern still thinks he’s in control, he’s not acting like someone who just lost, he didn’t even flinch, it’s like he’s expecting this!”

“No, no, we are not listening to that, that  _ psycho _ . Every minute we wait matters!”

“Kara,” Lucy says, “We want to find her as badly as you do,  _ trust me _ .”

Lucy stands at Maggie’s side, unwilling to interrupt the tension in her girlfriend’s body. When’s she’s wound this tight it only means trouble, and this fight has been brewing for months. 

“We can’t just punch our way out of this! We gotta do it right!” 

It’s almost like she’s not standing right here.

“If the shoe were on the other foot Alex would already be out the door, I’m not waiting.”

Well. She’s not wrong. Alex  _ would _ already be out there, and Lucy would probably be chasing her ass with two tac teams and Maggie and the NCPD on speed dial. But they could catch up to Alex, Kara had already proven uncatchable in her worry. 

“You’re not the only one who cares about her!” Maggie shouts, her voice finally breaking.

“I’m going!”

_ Screw protocol _ , Lucy things. She’s seen the set in Maggie’s jaw and the frustration boiling over. The words none of them have said but all of them feel. She wraps herself around Maggie, burying her face in Maggie’s neck as the tension radiates off of them both. Maggie needs to hear that someone is listening, that someone is taking her seriously, but Lucy has no words. 

She has no words for the sinking feeling in her gut. Or for the look on Malvern’s face when he warned them not to follow this lead. Or for the heavy feeling settling over her heart at the pitying look he shot Maggie as she left after Kara. 

She has no words five minutes later when she hears that the clock has dropped from twenty hours down to four. 

Alex has been missing for twenty four hours. 

And now, thanks to Kara rushing in, thanks to a twisted middle school crush and a criminal father, they’ve lost sixteen of the hours they had left to find her. 

And Lucy has no words. 


	2. Comes up to face the skies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angst with a happy ending. It's still 2x19, after all.

Lucy follows Kara into the interrogation room and watches as she slams down the computer. She’s praying that Kara doesn’t damage it,their only link to Alex, to seeing that she’s okay. They’ve lost so much time, Lucy can’t… she can’t lose this too.

“Tell me where she is!”

“I told you not to go there.”

It’s almost pitying, the glance he shoots you over Kara’s shoulder. Like he knew that Kara would rush in, he prepared for that, but he’s sorry that she did. Lucy keeps her face blank, but it doesn’t really matter, does it? If he followed Alex for a year, he knows Alex, he knows Maggie, he knows _her_. He knows very well that her heart is in that glass box slowly filling with water. He knows that there’s less than four hours before you and Maggie storm right back to this room and rip the still beating heart from his chest.

He knows he’s a dead man walking if something happens to Alex.

He just doesn’t care.

And that? Lucy finds terrifying. Because he is a man with nothing to lose and everything to gain in waiting them out. Either his father is freed or he dies trying, and he destroys all of them with him.

“Tell me where she is, NOW!”

“I I gave you thirty-six hours to break my father out of prison. But you didn’t listen,” he says. “So now that room is going to fill up with water in less than four hours. I think it’s time you got movin’.”

Kara stares at him. Lucy watches as the kid in the cape tries to stare down the man holding her hero- her _sister_ \- hostage. Leans forward on the table the way Lucy has seen Alex to a million times in a million different interrogations.

It could be the slight tremble in the hands denting the table.

It could be The Crinkle.

Or maybe Rick Malvern is just a psychopath who slipped through the cracks because the only thing he does is smile. He doesn’t blink, he barely breathes, he just… waits.

“Let me talk to Alex,” Kara pleads.

Three buttons, and the computer beeps. Kara spins the computer around and Lucy shifts to the side to see the screen. Alex, waist deep in rising water, pacing the room. Knowing her time is running out. Alex, whose shoulder is still bleeding where she must have dug the tracker out of her own shoulder.

“Alex!”

“Kara! I-I-I-I sent out a signal, I thought you were coming!”

Lucy’s heart shatters at the break in Alex’s voice.

“He rerouted the IP address, he sent it somewhere else. Do you have any idea where you are?”

Kara keeps her voice steady. Lucy doesn’t know how. Her hands are fisted at her sides, clenching every time Malvern breathes. Her eyes, like Lucy’s, are locked on the screen, watching. Looking for any other sign of injury as the water just keeps inching up Alex’s legs, trying to believe everything will be okay.

Alex looks around and just, she just shrugs. The water is rising and the clock is ticking and they have no idea where Alex is. They can’t lose her. Lucy _won’t_ lose her. She won’t let Maggie lose her, or Kara, or J’onn. That’s just not something that can happen.

She won’t let it.

She can’t.

“I was unconscious. I could be hours away, or I-I-I could be in the city?”

“Alex? It’s Rick,” he says, leaning forward. “I don’t want to hurt you. I keep on telling your sister that. Tell her to get my father, and this can all be over. And you can come home and get dry.”

“Kar- No!” Alex says firmly. “Kara, no you do not give that _terrorist_ what he wants. You cannot let yourself be blackmailed, you cannot open yourself up to that. _Ever_. Supergirl is bigger than me.”

Maggie pushes into the room and rushes to the computer. “Alex?”

“Maggie?”

“I’m right here.”

“I-is… is Lucy there?”

Lucy steps forward, edging past Kara. “Always, Danvers.”

“I-I… I need to speak to you both. Alone?”

Her eyes are darting around the cell. She cannot see you, can’t see the worried twist to Maggie’s mouth or the look they share at her request. The glance they barely give Kara before hurrying out of the room that holds Alex’s sister but also her torturer.

The door is barely shut before Lucy starts speaking. “Alex, honey, we’re coming okay? The entire DEO is on this, NCPD, hell we even called in Brian to keep an ear out okay?”

“Babe,” Maggie’s voice breaks. “Everyone here is working hard and we’re going to find you.”

Lucy crowds Maggie’s shoulder. They both know Alex can’t hear them, but they stick close to the screen anyway, cataloging every move and every expression on that beautiful face.

“The water is rising fast, and there are things I need to say.”

“No, don’t start talking like this is the end!”

“I don’t want it to be, but in case it is-”

“It’s not!” And Lucy’s voice is breaking too, both of them at the edge of tears. “You’re a badass, Danvers-”

“And you’re gonna figure out a way to get yourself out of there or you’re gonna hold on until we get there.”

“Guys, listen to me, _please_ ,” Alex begs.

She can’t hold her eyes on the camera. She drops them in the same way she would if she were begging them in person, and it hurts. Alex is so, so strong, so fearless, and so, so afraid. And there’s nothing Lucy or Maggie can do. It’s all Lucy can do to wrap a trembling arm around Maggie’s waist, rest her head against Maggie as you both shake with suppressed sobs, as the laptop in Maggie’s hands wobbles.

“No, okay? Okay we just started this, you, and me, and Lucy. And it’s not gonna end. Not for a long time. We just had our first Valentine’s day, I want to do more with you,” she looks to Lucy, “I want to do more with _both of you_.”

Maggie’s voice is hoarse with pain. She’s shaking her head like Alex can see them, and Lucy can feel her own tears falling. It’s not worth wiping them away, not after two hours of sleep and a day of panic and keeping calm for everyone else. There’s cameras in the hall, of course, but Lucy will take anyone who tries to hold this against them to the mats when Alex is home.

Hell, Alex will help. And Maggie needs the practice.

“I want more firsts,” Lucy agrees. “First vacation- we haven’t even argued over where we’re going yet, or how to load the dishwasher-”

“Or how to unload it so Lucy and I can reach things,” Maggie sniffs, “Or what to name our first dog, do you want a dog?”

Lucy is, honestly, more of a cat person, but it gets Alex to laugh a little and rub her neck. That thing she does when she’s feeling awkward about _feelings_ and having them and experiencing them. When she doesn’t want to admit that this is something she’s thought about before. Like she did when they took Lucy to the bar, and Maggie let Alex move at her own pace, until Alex threw back three shots and kissed Lucy and Maggie laughed and said “Maybe we should talk first, babe.”

If it meant Alex came home safe, she’d pick up dog shit on her morning run. She’d forgive the eaten shoes and ruined carpets. She’d-

“Yeah… um, let’s, let’s name her Gertrude.”

She’d do anything except that. Lucy snorts, “Are you kidding me, Danvers?”

Even Maggie laughs a little. “See, there’s a lifetime of firsts that we’re gonna do together. So hold on, okay? Hold on until we get to you. You promise. Promise me!”

“I-”

The screen cuts out.

Lucy’s heart stops, her breath stops, she can’t move.

“What- Alex?” Maggie hits keys, trying to bring her back. She slams the computer shut and throws it down the hall in frustration before burying her hands in her hair.

The water must have gotten into the wiring, which adds a whole other level of terror to the grip on Lucy’s heart. What happened if it wasn’t just the water passing through those cables? What if the electricity passed through as well? The room was glass, yes, and concrete blocks, but it was held together with steel. The furniture was steel. The pipes were metal too. Did they now risk an electrified Alex before the clock ran out?

Kara rushes out at the noise and sees the laptop on the ground. Sees Lucy frozen and crying, while Maggie still fights to hold back the tears. “What happened?”

“ _I told you not to rush in._ And now you’ve made things worse.”

“I did what I thought was right!” Kara exclaims, throwing her hands up.

“I _should_ have been heard. I should have been listened to. _Lucy_ should have been listened to. I’m- _we’re her girlfriends_!”

“And I’m her sister!”

“And you think that trumps us? That you know what’s right for her?” Lucy asks.

The fight between Supergirl and Kara has been brewing a long time. But Major Lane, co-Director of the DEO has a bone of her own to pick with Supergirl. If she had followed protocols, they wouldn’t be in this position, they’d still have fourteen hours before the water started pouring in. There’d be no need for halted goodbyes and words hanging heavy over their heads and hearts, of giving their imaginary dog a name that will get her ass kicked at future trips to the dog park because Alex’s oblivious ass didn’t realize some scientist she admired as a child was her first gay crush.

“I-I got her to be herself, Kara. _We_ got her to be herself. _We have just as much to lose as you!”_

Lucy reaches for Maggie and pulls her back out of Kara’s space. There’s a stunned look to the alien’s eyes, and Lucy thinks maybe she gets it, maybe she finally understands. She’s not alone in protecting Alex, not anymore. It’s no longer the Danvers Sisters Against the World, it’s them and her and finding Alex and bringing her home.

It’s three words dangling in the air, just out of reach, just like the oxygen Lucy can’t seem to get enough of right now as the vice on her heart keeps squeezing.

“You should have listened to me,” Maggie sobs.

Lucy purses her lips when Maggie pulls away to storm off. She watches for a moment before turning to Kara. “Even if you weren’t willing to listen to Maggie because she’s new, or a cop, or you had a fight, or _whatever_ , you should have listened to me. There are protocols _for a reason_ and they are to prevent the worst from happening.”

Lucy takes a deep breath. Kara’s eyes are still on Maggie’s departing back, glossy with her own tears. She’s never seen Supergirl look this young, or this lost.

“When we get her back- _when_ \- we are going to sit down and discuss this whole mess and _prevent this from happening again_ , Kara. We all want what’s best for Alex, okay? Maggie and I, we don’t _work_ without Alex, not together, not apart. I need you to understand this. We’re a package deal now, just like you and Alex and the eight flavors of ice cream in her freezer, okay?”

Kara swallows heavily before meeting Lucy’s eyes and nodding.

She thinks maybe the kid is starting to get it.

Whether she does or she doesn’t, Lucy doesn’t have time for more lectures. She has to find the girlfriend she can before they run out of time to find the one she can’t.

“I’m sorry,” Kara whispers.

Lucy stops and closes her eyes. Kara sounds just as broken and scared as they do, and she really shouldn’t be surprised. She’s known the Danvers’ for over a year, she knows that Alex is Kara’s person, her anchor to humanity. She turns back to face Kara.

“You made it worse, but none of this is your fault,” Lucy concedes. “It’s his.”

“Not- not _just_ that. I know the protocols. I’m sorry I didn’t obey them.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Kara wraps her arms around herself and squeezes. Lucy supposes that, aside from Clark and Mon El and J’onn, there aren’t many people she can squeeze tight enough to get that kind of comfort from. A teddy bear certainly wasn’t going to stand up to a Kryptonian hug.

“Protocols were important on Krypton. That’s why it was such a big deal when Astra… did what she did. Why she was sent to Fort Rozz,” Kara says, taking a deep, shaky breath. “Protocols killed my planet and breaking them saved Kal, saved me.”

Lucy stopped just out of Kara’s space and studied her. The way her hands pulsed a heartbeat into her skin as the muscles contracted and relaxed. As her jaw tensed and she refused to meet Lucy’s eyes.

“Following protocols also almost sent Alex to CADMUS.”

Kara nods, sharp and violent.

“I get it, Kara. I have been trying to make up for that since I helped you rescue her. I don’t want anything happening to her either.”

“I know,” Kara says.

Lucy is barely startled when her arms are full of a sobbing Kryptonian. Murmurs of how sorry she was, how she was only trying to get Alex back, how she should have known Rick was watching them. How well he knew her, knew them all, to plan for this, to put Alex in _more_ danger as a punishment for being reckless, for being Supergirl.

Lucy held on. She let the girl from a lost world bury her face in Lucy’s neck and cry. Lucy gripped as tight as she could, knowing that Kara’s bruising grip on her was still Kara holding back. Lucy had watched Alex and Kara both let the world burn to save the other. As helpless as Maggie and Lucy were, they were still human. Kara was not, she wasn’t used to not being able to do _something_ , find _some way_ to rescue her sister.

As scared and worried as they were, Maggie and Lucy and Alex knew the risks. The risks of being human, of doing what they did for a living. That’s why Alex tried to open the box on those words, that’s why she and Maggie slammed it shut and told her to hold on.

That was a feeling Kara only experienced briefly, and it wasn’t so much being human as it was Kryptonian, because no matter how hard she tried to fit in, she never truly would.

Kara isn’t human.

Kara is virtually unkillable, but Alex?

Alex is human.

Soft, squishy, dangerously human.

It was Alex’s nature to protect Kara, sliding easily between her and danger in the role of big sister. And Kara usually let her, knowing that she was fast enough to get Alex out of the way of true danger. Lucy had watched it happen with everything from Fort Rozz criminals to a drunken frat boy in front of Kara’s building.

But Alex wasn’t here, wasn’t where Kara could reach her and scoop her out of trouble.

Lucy let Kara cry. Shed a few tears herself, her face burrowing into perfect golden curls. They were tired and scared. They could scarcely afford the time, but Kara and Lucy desperately needed it. Needed to let it out so that they could resume the search and rescue.

She waits until Kara begins to pull back to loosen her hold.

“I’m, I’m going to go to the balcony to get some air.”

Lucy nods, “I’m going to go track down Maggie.”

“Tell her… tell her I’m sorry?”

“Yeah, I will,” Lucy smiles.

She and Supergirl head off in different directions, each in search of a different kind of peace.

She’s checked the cafeteria, the locker room, the gym, and the command center before she finally checks Alex’s office. But Maggie isn’t here either.

Lucy sits heavily in Alex’s chair and leans her head back, closing her eyes and breathing in the faint scent of Alex’s perfume. Another minute of quiet, desperately trying to force her tense body to relax, just a little, just for a moment. Her hands drift over the armrests to dangle at the sides of the chair. Her fingers running mindlessly along the plastic edges of the best ergonomics the government can afford.

Her eyes shoot open.

She reaches down under the chair frantically.

The holster for Alex’s gun is empty.

Maggie is gone.

Lucy frowns and digs into her pocket on a hunch.

Alex’s gun is gone, Maggie is missing, and so is Lucy’s security badge.

It’s been nearly an hour since Maggie stormed away from the broken laptop.

Lucy is already running for the command center when she begins shouting for Kara.

Kara’s on her way to the prison while Lucy reviews the tape of Maggie and Malvern. She must have slipped back in when she and Kara separated.

God the reasons to kill this man were mounting.

Listening to him talk to Maggie about them, about spying on them, a voyeur into their lives… It sickened her. Lucy wasn’t sure how she’d be able to face going back to Alex’s apartment, or even Maggie’s. Hell, her own. Knowing he’d been there… watching.

Lucy pushes aside her own fears to do what J’onn suggested she do earlier: she watched them both. Sees what she missed earlier, beneath the tears and the promises. She sees Maggie crumbling under her cop face, knowing that the clock is ticking on her girlfriend’s life.

She watches Maggie turn Lucy’s badge over in her hand as she exits, barely pausing to glance at the cameras.

For the theft alone, Lucy should revoke her visitor’s clearance.

Then again, if Supergirl didn’t hurry, Maggie would be joining Thompson in prison and they wouldn’t have to worry about it. Lucy pinches the bridge of her nose and resists the urge to bang her head against Winn’s workstation.

They don’t have a feed inside the prison, but the NCPD chatter was constant in her ear. The attempt at breaking out Thompson had been reported. Alien weaponry on site. Backup requested.

Lucy thanked whoever was listening that they’d figured out the space gun’s “stun” feature. She and Alec were too pretty to be visiting Maggie in a high security prison for conjugal visits.

She glanced at the clock. Fifteen minutes remaining.

 _Hang on, Alex_.

Kara’s comm echos through the room. They have a location, and before the last word leaves Kara’s mouth, Lucy is in the air and… flying?!

J’onn has her.

Given the chance, she’d much rather cling to his back than be carried bridal style at breakneck speeds through the city, cracking glass as they duck around skyscrapers and bypass the traffic below.

J’onn smiles reassuringly after Lucy’s best attempt at strangling him when he cuts it a little too close to the power lines.

Before she knows it, he’s dropping her to her feet and she’s running, running, almost as soon as her feet hit the ground. She’s running to Kara and Maggie, Kara ripping the door of the warehouse open, Maggie with her flashlight out and gun ready. All three of them virtually ignoring the handful of thugs Malvern had hired to keep them from getting to Alex.

They were J’onn’s problem, as his girls raced to save Alex.

He trusted them to save his favorite daughter as the clock wound down.

Lucy glanced at her watch as they raced into the warehouse, shouting for Alex, scanning for any sign, any sound. Time ran out three minutes ago.

But this is Alex.

Alex would find a way to survive for them.

She promised.

They turn a corner, their feet pounding almost as fast as their hearts and they just stop. She isn’t sure about the others, but her heart stops as suddenly as they do at the sight of Alex, floating, arms drifting at her sides, just bobbing in a glass cage. Alex, her strong, beautiful Alex, eyes closed, not fighting.

The grip that’s been around her heart for hours now tightens. She can’t breathe, she, Lucy, she can only stare, it’s been seconds, maybe, but she can’t count the heartbeats she can’t feel, stiff, still, she just… stares. She can’t breathe. It can’t end like this, not now, not so soon. She didn’t give in to her feelings just to loose everything, she and Maggie wouldn’t survive losing Alex. _Kara_ wouldn’t survive losing Alex.

“Alex!” Maggie whimpers.

And then, oh god, then a last bubble of air leaves Alex, and Kara is off in a blur. Kara goes so fast  she goes straight through the glass and the cement wall behind it, missing Alex completely as the water, and Alex, rush out of the box.

And Maggie is dropping her gun, dropping her flashlight, and grabbing Lucy’s hand. They’re running, running for Alex’s limp form, gathering her in their arms even as Kara circles back in the building.

Alex is coughing, gasping, choking on water. Maggie is at Alex’s head, Lucy at her back, Kara kneeling on her other side, as they gently roll her to her side to to help. She’s coughing for what seems like hours before she can even seem to acknowledge the three women crowding her.  

Alex gasping for air, soaked and shivering, is quite possibly the most beautiful thing Lucy has ever seen.

Because Alex is breathing.

Alex is breathing and alive.

Kara is thrilled, whispering, “She’s alive, Rao, she’s alive.”

And while they were late, the timer ran out-

-they weren’t _too_ _late_.

Alex held on.

Alex, stubborn, beautiful, maddening Alex, held on.

And Alex is pushing herself back over, rolling back onto Maggie and Lucy’s laps, and her eyes are bright, and exhausted, and _so alive_. Maggie’s hands are lifting Alex up to cradle her face to Maggie’s chest, brushing hands over her face and lips and kissing Alex’s forehead. Lucy grabs a shaking hand and holds the freezing digits to her own face, kissing the palm, kissing Alex’s pounding, unsteady pulse at her wrist.

“You held on,” Kara says.

“I held on,” Alex chokes out.

Lucy and Maggie choke on hysterical laughter and agree.

Kara lets them hold Alex, contenting herself with gripping Alex’s other hand and sharing a weak smile with her sister.

They’re all soaked, now, with freezing water, and the exhaustion is hitting them all hard. The adrenaline of finding Alex, of her surviving, is crashing, and hard. But it’s only as Alex starts to shiver harder that they realize they’re still there, on a cold concrete floor.

And that’s the only reason she and Maggie release Alex.

Maggie slips out of her leather jacket. She and Lucy help Alex struggle into it, even as Alex can barely keep her eyes open, still whispering, “I held on.”

Kara wraps her sister tightly in her cape but pauses, unsure. There’s no way to carry Alex _and_ them, and Lucy and Maggie are still reaching, touching, trying to keep hold of Alex.

It’s Lucy who kisses Alex on the forehead one last time before wrapping her arms around Maggie and pulling her away. “Go, Kara. Get Alex to medical before the hypothermia sets in. J’onn brought me, we’ll be there soon.”

They’re still staring at the hole Kara made in the roof as she shot up, her sister cradled safely in her arms, when J’onn makes his way inside, thugs dealt with.

Lucy glances at her watch again.

Waiting for Alex to breathe again felt like hours.

It had been less than ten minutes.

Lucy doesn’t complain when J’onn wraps an arm around each of them and takes off. She doesn’t say anything, really, tucking her face into J’onn’s neck and gripping at Maggie’s arm as they fly up, up and away, just so very thankful.

So very lucky.

They wait nearly an hour for Dr. Hamilton to meet them in the hall where they’ve been pacing. Lucy is dead on her feet, running on two hours of sleep and twenty hours of panic. Maggie isn’t much better, twisting her hands and muttering.

Both of them stop and stare as Hamilton exits the room with Maggie’s jacket in hand. She’s smiling, and it makes them both relax just a little bit more. “Agent Danvers is going to be just fine. She’ll probably be cold, and I’d like to keep her for observation as is custom for near-drownings-”

“But you don’t actually think we can keep her here, do you?”

Hamilton snickers. “Lane, I don’t think I could keep her here if I allowed you three blackout curtains and conjugal visits.”

Lucy refused to blush.

She refused.

She had years of law school and military training to keep a straight face.

Which is why she refused to blush, even as her ears betrayed her and she could feel the rush of warmth at their tips.

Even Maggie smiled a little.

“You two can go in. Keep her company, _try_ to keep her in bed as long as possible. And when she leaves, keep her warm and drinking warm fluids. No heavy food for a bit. If she has difficulty breathing, bring her in immediately, because her lungs could be filling back up with fluid, okay?” Hamilton drops the jacket around Maggie’s shoulders. “I’m very surprised Supergirl isn’t here.”

“She’s keeping watch over Malvern,” Maggie whispers, pulling her arms through the damp sleeves.

“Ah. Fair enough. You two go in there then, put yourselves at ease. You got Danvers back, she’s safe, and we’re all going to make sure she’s going to be just fine.”

With that, Hamilton leaves them with another smile and a passing pat on Lucy’s shoulder.

This time, what feels like hours, actually is. Alex is, understandably, exhausted from her ordeal. Kidnapping, drowning, it was a lot to go through in less than 48 hours. Lucy is a little bit ashamed to realize that she’s dozed off, face down next to Alex’s hand on the tiny medical bed.

She only realizes this when a cold, shaky finger brushes the hair from her face. She blinks away the sleep to find Alex staring back at her, a small smile on her face.

Alex turns to look at Maggie, standing by the heart monitor and keeping watch out the observation windows, “Hey, you.”

Maggie spins and uncrosses her arms, a thankful smile on her face. Lucy sits up as Maggie comes to stand on Alex’s other side, tears in both of their eyes.

“You okay?” Alex asks.

She asks as if she hadn’t been the one kidnapped. As if she hadn’t been the one tortured with slowly rising water and the knowledge that she would drown if they weren’t fast enough.

Typical Agent Badass.

Typical Alex Danvers, asking about them first.

“Am I okay?” Maggie croaks, “Are you kidding?”

Alex reaches for their hands and tugs them both closer. The hand in Lucy’s is absolute ice. She wraps both of hers around it, trying to let her own warmth seep into Alex’s cold skin. Too cold.

“You know you’re really clever with the whole Navy SEAL thing, and your pants, and your pants, what was that?” Maggie laughs.

And Lucy gets it. At this point, they have to laugh, because if they don’t, they’ll cry, all three of them. But she’s not ready to laugh, not yet. Lucy cracks a small smile though, to see her girls together and huffing out quiet laughter at Alex Danvers, supernerd, pulling ridiculous stunts to survive.

“Well, I knew I just had to buy a couple seconds, I knew you guys were coming.”

And Alex is serious again. Because it is serious. It was serious.

And it wasn’t seconds.

It was minutes.

And if it were anyone else?

Anyone but Agent Alex “Authority Problem” Danvers?

If it had been her, or Maggie, or _literally any other human being on this planet?_

They’d be planning a funeral right now. Or talking to a vegetable on life support.

Lucy takes Alex’s hand and presses it to her forehead even as she closes her eyes. Her breath hitches.

Maggie reaches a hand across to Lucy.

“You didn’t let me finish… before, but I, um, I just really have to say it now,” Alex breathes, tugging her hand away from Lucy so that she can push herself up.

Lucy’s eyes jerk open as she and Maggie scramble, not to help as they both know Alex wouldn’t appreciate it, but to hover, their fingertips ghosting the underside of Alex’s arms as the bedridden idiot _who just survived drowning_ pushed up.

“Alex-”

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” she shushes Lucy. She reaches for them again, her eyes dancing from where the three clasped hands to the two very worried faces of her girlfriends. “Those firsts that we talked about?”

Maggie nods, her lower lip trembling. “Mmhmm?”

“I want to have them _all_ with you. With both of you. I never want to stop having firsts with you.”

Alex pauses, taking her time to look at them both individually, as if memorizing their faces. “I love you, Maggie Sawyer.”

“I love you, Alex Danvers,” Maggie says.

And Lucy’s heart breaks, just a little. Because of course she does, Maggie was Alex’s awakening, was everything, risked her life and career while Lucy followed protocol-

“I love you, Lucy Lane.”

Lucy’s eyes betray her as she studies Alex’s tired, red eyes. “And I love you, Alex Danvers.”

Lucy takes a risk, glancing at Maggie, who’s looking so proud, and happy, and staring straight at her the same way Alex is. “And I love you, too, Maggie Sawyer.”’

Because it’s true. The cop that was her rival has wormed her way under Lucy’s skin. She’s become so much more than Alex’s girlfriend, than Lucy’s frenemy-turned-romantic-something. She is as much of Lucy’s world as Alex is, balancing it out and making her heart whole.

She’s still surprised when Maggie’s smile widens even deeper, when she shakes her head in pure joy. “I love you too, Luce.”

“Yeah?” Lucy asks, uncertain.

“Yeah,” Maggie nods. “I love you both so much.”

And it’s laughter, it’s hope, it’s coming home as they meet in a series of kisses, not just lips or tongue but cheeks and chins and eyes. Just whatever they could touch and taste and smell and feel, enjoying the words finally released from their cages, enjoying the life and love so freely bursting from the three lovers.

If Lucy’s nose lingers in Maggie’s hair, or her lips over the pulse in Alex’s neck, no one says a thing.

No one talks about the tears they share either, just enjoying the quiet.

And enjoying being happy.

Because Lucy is so, so happy, here, crowding what barely counts as a bed, sharing body heat and kisses with her two favorite people on the planet.

Absolutely no one is surprised when, maybe an hour later, Alex heads for the control room. She is nice enough not to put up too much of a fight when her girlfriends roll their eyes at each other and find their places on either side of her. Alex pretends not to notice that they’ve slowed their usual pace to allow her to move on her own, and they pretend not to notice the weight draped over their shoulders as Alex’s body tells her to do the exact opposite of what she’s doing.

J’onn smiles brightly as Maggie huffs out, “She refused to stay in bed.”

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m alright,” Alex soothes. She breaks away from them to drape herself in the arms of her favorite Kryptonian, squeezing as hard as she can manage.

“I knew you’d be fine,” says Mon El as the sisters break apart.

Lucy would pay Winn good money for that shot of Alex’s face.

“You did good, Alex,” and there’s J’onn, leaning in for a hug. As Alex’s arms reach around him, he moves to drag Lucy and Maggie into it, “You too, Lucy, Maggie.”

Lucy and Maggie glow with parental approval.

Alex too, almost giddy, bouncing on her toes. “Just doing what you taught me to.”

“Oh… you survived.”

Alex’s smile drops as she turns to face Malvern. Lucy notes that several agents around the room drops their hands to their guns, and she is so, so tempted to do the same. Maggie reaches for Alex, but it’s Winn who steps in.

Sweet Winn, who cowers when Alex glares and lets her steal his beer at game night. Winn, who flinches at raised voices and was just as panicked at Kara the entire time Alex was gone.

Winn slides between Alex and Malvern. Between Lucy and Maggie and Malvern. He puts himself between his sisters and the man who tortured them all emotionally, and Alex physically. Winn gets in Malvern’s face and points, “Oh _you_ do _not_ get to talk to her.”

Alex trusts her brother and girlfriends completely. With them, she is free to turn her back on Malvern and ask, “What are you going to do to him?”

“My job,” J’onn says proudly, “Protect the identity of Supergirl and the DEO.”

“You’re gonna mind wipe him?”

“Do you object?” J’onn asks.

“Oh, no. Just… before you do that?” Alex pauses.

She turns to face Malvern.

They really should have expected it. She’s Alex, after all.

Even the agents escorting Malvern don’t really react other than catching Malvern before he hits the ground.

After Alex clocks him in the nose.

Because of course she does.

She’s Alex.

Maggie is clearly having similar thoughts to Lucy, thoughts to be revisited later on a different night when they know they won’t have a Kryptonian space heater fighting for room in Alex’s giant bed. Thoughts that they should definitely not be having so soon after receiving dad’s approval, which is why they share a proud smirk with each other before glancing at J’onn. Lucy doesn’t know what Maggie thinks about during times like these, but her preference is mentally reciting the best parts of Space Jam.

“So just make sure he remembers that?” Alex asks.

“Will do,” J’onn laughs, and follows Malvern and his escorts to medical.

Winn shares a high five with Alex like the proud little brother he is.

Lucy slips back under Alex’s arm, tracing the gauze on her shoulder. Alex hugs her close even as her attention is on her little brother, whom she hasn’t greeted properly since waking up. Lucy lets them have their moment while she keeps an eye on trouble, with Maggie and Kara going off a ways to talk.

She can’t hear what they’re saying, but she can’t help but laugh when Kara bats away Maggie’s offered hand and pulls her into a hug. It draws Alex’s attention, but Maggie makes her way back and, this time, tucks herself into Lucy’s side, reaching around Lucy to squeeze Alex’s waist.

Lucy is warm between them. She finally loses that last bit of stress, dropping her shoulders and knocking her head against Maggie’s.

This time last year, she was watching Alex get hauled away to CADMUS and trying desperately to assuage the guilt she felt at sending her friend’s sister to a government black site. A darker part of her wishes she had an opportunity to do that to Malvern.

But then, Lucy Lane oversees the desert base. She’s in charge of prisoner containment.

Rick Malvern is now in her care.

And Lucy will have to deal with the consequences of later decisions exactly that. Later.

For now?

Alex is safe.

No one’s in jail.

Lucy is fucking exhausted.

She’s also never felt more at home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, and sorry for the week-long wait. Hope it satisfies!
> 
> Find me @bathtimefunduck

**Author's Note:**

> Look on the bright side, you already know how the episode ends.  
> Part two will be up by the end of the week.


End file.
